llie Parallel Drift-Hilh of Western Netv Yorlc. 2Go 



as tliey have been described in this 2)aper ; and licre, though 

 there are some nnimportant beds of chiy, there are no beach 

 sands. 



The elevations above Ontario of a few localities, will enable 

 lis to form an idea of the general appearance of the region in 

 those ancient times. 



The signal-station of the New York State Survey, two miles 

 south of Clyde, is u])on a hill 3<S8 feet above Ontaiio ; that at 

 Victory, seventeen miles distant, 323 feet, and the one at Gil- 

 bertsville, seventeen miles further east, 27G feet ; the Clyde 

 River at Clyde, 145 feet. Hence, when Ontario stood at the 

 level of the old ridge, there were more than 50 feet of water in 

 the Clyde, while the hills upon which stand the signal stations 

 were islands from 75 to 200 feet above the lake. True, these 

 hills are amono- the hio-hest of the reo-ion, but there are scores 

 of others neai-ly or quite as high, while all of the larger valleys 

 are but little above that of the Clyde River. The one running 

 north from Clyde village was many years ago surveyed for a 

 canal, to connect the Erie with Big Sodus, but which failed of 

 completion from financial, not engineering, difiiculties. The 

 valley. stretching north from the Montezuma marshes to Wolcott 

 was also vsurveyed, with a view to ascertaining the practicability 

 of draining the marshes in this direction, and it was shown that 

 a cutting of eighteen feet would etiect the object. 



Seneca Lake is 207 feet above Ontario ; Cayuga, 131 feet ; 

 Onondaga, 118 feet ; and the summit-level of the Erie Canal in 

 the Mohawk Valley, 182 feet. The following are elevations along 

 the line of the Ontario shore ]'ailroail : Hannibal, 93 feet ; 

 Sterling, 72 feet ; Red Creek. 87 feet ; \Yolcott, 112 feet ; Rose, 

 141 feet; Alton, 154 feet; Wallington, 160 feet; Sodus (near 

 the lake ridge), 182 feet; and Ontario, 169 feet. 



Along the immediate shore of the lake west of Big Sodus Bay, 

 the elevation is not greater than 60 feet, while east of this 

 point, a number of hills attain the altitude of 120 feet (Charts 

 of the IJ. S. Lake Survey). 



These figures, meagre as they are, present to the mind a gra- 

 phic picture of this region when the waters of Ontario were 

 raising the ancient beach. Every prominent hill of to-day was 

 then an island, and every considerable valley a deep channel, 



